Chicken Pot Pie

This is a favorite in our house. I have tried a lot of different recipes for the filling and gone a lot of different directions with the pastry but this, we finally decided, is our favorite.

Jeremiah dislikes the use of puff pastry for anything other than dessert, even though I love it for things like this and biscuits are super easy but we really just like the regular old pie crust.

I do tend to make the crust for these types of things with whole grains. Even though this is a hearty dish, I like the earthiness the whole grain flavor adds.

It also works really well (and makes things really easy) to roll out the pie dough in an extra large circle, plop it on a baking sheet, put the filling in the middle and then just fold the sides up over the top. Then you only have to roll one thing out and you don’t have to really shape or pinch anything.

I think that is one thing I love about shepherd’s pie and chicken pot pie – you can really adjust things to make them beautiful or just plain functional for getting the family fed.

Roll out bottom pie crust and place in pie plate, set in refrigerator until needed.

Steam the carrots or boil them in a small saucepan.

While the carrots are cooking, melt the butter in a stockpot. Add the mushrooms, celery, peas and pearl onions. Cook until soft, add the flour and stir until everything is coated. Slowly add the heavy cream, stirring until everything is incorporated and the sauce is thick.

Add the chicken, tabasco sauce and worcestershire.

Turn the heat off and take the pie plate out of the fridge. Roll out the top crust. Put the filling into the pie plate and drape the top crust over it. Trim the edges of the crust and pinch together to form a seal. Cut some vents in the top and flute the edges. Whisk the egg and a ½ teaspoon of water in a small bowl with a fork, brush over the entire pie crust.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until pie crust is done and golden on top.

Remove from oven and let cool about 10 minutes. Serve hot.TO MAKE THIS A FREEZER MEAL

You can do it a couple different ways, it works great to go ahead and make the whole entire pie, start to finish, crust and all and freeze it in a foil pie plate and wrap it in plastic.

Then just you can just thaw at room temperature for a couple hours and then pop it in the oven, if it is still a little frozen you will need to bake it longer, probably closer to an hour.

The other way I have done it, is to just make the filling and freeze it in bags, then you need only to thaw the filling out. Which can be done either in the fridge, on the counter, in the microwave or by my favorite quick way, place the bag in a pot of boiling water until thawed. Then dump the filling into a baking dish and top with biscuits or put it into a pie crust.

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NOTE: If you want to make individual pot pies as seen in the photo, just make the filling as instructed. Fill ramekins to within about 1/2″ of the top. Roll out pie dough and cut into squares, place one square on each ramekin and cut a vent, brush with egg wash and place the ramekins on a baking sheet. Bake until the pie crust is golden brown and cooked through, about 20 minutes.